Live updates: HR Tech Interactive 2017, Singapore

Welcome to HR Tech Interactive 2017, Singapore – the fifth annual edition of Asia’s most innovative, invite-only specialised conference on managing HR in the age of digital disruption, produced by Priya Veeriah. We’re reporting live from InterContinental Singapore, with Human Resources’ Wani Azahar and Aditi Sharma Kalra on-site.

The most recent updates will appear first:

With that, we come to the end of HR Tech Interactive 2017, Singapore. Human Resources would like to thank all speakers, panelists and table hosts in pulling together facts and case studies for insightful presentations. Thanks also to all delegates for their active participation in the event and leveraging on the various networking and interactive opportunities. Finally, but not the least, we thank the following sponsors and partners:

Platinum Sponsor Blackboard

Gold Sponsor Workday

Silver Sponsors:

Excelity Global Solutions

iTalent

PageUp

Exhibitors:

ManpowerGroup

Ramco Systems

Sonru

Coming in to the last segment, Gary Lee, chief human resources specialist, global talent development of Grundfos takes charge of moderating a panel discussion focussed on cognitive analysis.

Joining him are a capable pool of panelists:

Cindy Dermawan, head of talent and learning management, diversity and inclusion, Citi

Reddiam Raghu Ram, head of human resources, Shell

Aparna Kumar, regional human resources lead, Monsanto

We next have a case study on amplifying HR technology to support transformation. Our speaker is currently spearheading regional HR transformation covering 14 countries across Asia Pacific. She is setting up a fundamental platform to not only increase talent and people capability but enhance cross-country collaboration.

The head of regional rewards and HR programmes management from Fuji Xerox, Jacely Voon Hui Mien, will share how Fuji Xerox has built a business case to reform HR, as well as driven transformation.

“We want to leverage the right tools for the future of HR,” she says. “To drive the business in the future, we were clear that we needed some kind of intelligence to provide details like employee turnover to the company. So we adopted the three principles of linking process, people, and technology.”

Let’s keep the energy and questions going with the next panel discussion on digital HR, where we have the VP of people, international and operations from Workday – Mandy Jeffery, as the panel moderator.

Next, we dive into a panel discussion on turning talent into a strategic business force, moderated by global HR business partner at Standard Chartered Bank, Sandeep Mookharjea [extreme left].

Joining him are panellists [left-right]:

Victor Phang, regional director, iTalent Pro

U-Jin Lee, human resources vice-president, Asia, Sibelco

Deepti Bhanot, head of human resources, Tagit

Dr Timothy Low, CEO, Farrer Park Hospital

Next, we have the privilege of having Tom Holz, senior director, Blackboard for Business and Government on stage, who in his role as leader of the Blackboard for Business team helps MNC clients achieve their business goals through technology-driven L&D programmes.

With 17 years of success in consulting and sales leadership roles at Blackboard and Cornerstone, he has partnered with more than 300 organisations in their transitions and implementations of Blackboard. In his presentation, he is sharing the best practices from global companies that measure competencies, inspire collaboration and leverage online technology to meet learning goals.

We move into our first interactive session, with five table themes being facilitated by table hosts across the room:

Our first speaker heads the global organisation and people analytics team at Merck Group, supporting its three business sectors of healthcare, life sciences, and performance materials. Alexis Saussinan, currently the head of organisation development and people analytics at Merck Group, shares a case study on evolving your HR operating model to support business transformation.

“What we have done over the past eight months, is we have connected every single people data point of the company into one platform. We track that every month, and we try to derive insights out of it. We have a multi-year roadmap in place. Currently, it includes business data such as sales, and we are also looking to plug in external data,” he shares, explaining the technology journey at Merck so far.

A quick introduction by senior journalist at Human Resources, Wani Azahar, sets the pace for the day, where she says: “With the aid of technology in our processes, knowledge is being transferred, competencies are being built, and employees are using self-services to get their queries answered in what are known as “boundary less” organisations.”

“With the HR function getting leaner, the focus is on integrating technology into the world of work like never before – and here’s where HR Tech Interactive comes in,” she adds.